Naming Ceremony

Well, I thought it was going to be a disaster! At the last minute, lots of things starting to become unhinged. Technology failed us, cars broke down, guests cancelling and to top it all off I managed to get the balloon strings tangled up bringing them in from the car. However, once I took a few deep breaths, enlisted the help of some family on arrival at the venue and had a big cuddle with the guest of honor (JC of course), I started to relax.

Everything was just beautiful. We had a humanist service, delivered by Gillian, who also married Steven and I. The service was personal and child focused with thoughtful poetry and prose throughout. Steven and I declared a parental pledge and I read an extract from Kahlil Gibran's 'The Prophet'. We had a powerpoint slideshow of JC's photos on display and some of his favourite music (Lion King soundtrack and Ma Maw's a Millionaire) on in the background. Afterwords there was handprinting , photos taken, signing of the certificate and most importantly, cutting and eating of cake! Delicious cake may I add, made lovingly by Grandma and Grandpa Duncan.

We asked all our guests to bring a piece of fabric with them as their gift to John. It was to be something personal to them or just a colour/pattern that they liked. We are going to make it into a patchwork quilt for him to treasure as he gets older. Our guests were really very generous, some of them cutting up very sentimental pieces of baby blankets, wedding dresses, beloved outfits and favourite scarves. We are so very grateful for their effort and thoughtfulness.

Some of our guests also brought additional gifts, which was unnecessary but equally kind. Here are just a few of the very cool gifts he recieved . . .

A John Connor (Terminator) action figure 

lots of Peter Rabbit toys, books and blankets

and a Tooth Fairy pillow (which I thought was very quirky!)

Steven's Grandad, who he was very close to, died before Steven and I met each other and Steven's mum bought a lovely pendant for John which she enclosed with a heartfelt letter to John from his Great Grandad Wilson and a photo of him.

Steven was very emotional when he read this and although I never met him, I too was touched by this gift. It is during times like these that we realise that certain significant figures in our lives are not here to share in our joy and regardless of your spiritual or religious beliefs, I think we all like to hope that wherever they are, they are sharing our lives and proud of our achievements. I personally, have never experienced such a loss but I have to admit I did miss the presence of my Dad today who unfortunately could not attend as he lives abroad. My Dy (Scottish for granddad) is suffering with dementia so neither him nor my Gran attended today which was a shame.

On a lighter note, there were two other important people who couldn't attend. A little bit racist that they don't allow them entry into functions suites. Even when they dress up in their most sparkly tiaras: